President Trump has written back. “Decisive leadership.” “Stand with you in the fight.” “Special Operations Forces deployed.” On paper, it reads like validation.
In reality, it reads like another press release.
Let’s be honest about what this letter is: diplomacy. Polished, necessary, and completely detached from what Nigerians are experiencing on the ground.
Trump applauds Tinubu’s “resolve to tackle… violence affecting Christian communities.” Good. But resolve without results is rhetoric. Benue is still burying families. Plateau is still counting graves. The North-West is still paying bandit tax. If US Special Forces have been “deployed to equip” our military, where is the change citizens can feel?
The letter cites the “2026 Defence Cooperation Roadmap.” Roadmaps are fine. But Nigerians don’t need frameworks. We need fewer roadblocks manned by kidnappers. We need IDPs returning to farms. We need governors to stop begging Abuja for troops that never arrive.
This is the trap of Tinubu’s Washington obsession. A nice letter from the White House becomes the headline, while the real headline, bodies in Yelewata, hunger in Katsina, fear on highways, gets buried.
We should welcome US partnership. Terrorism is transnational. Intelligence, training, and equipment help. But partnership is not a substitute for sovereignty.
“Decisive leadership” is not measured by letters received in DC. It is measured by communities secured at home.
Until then, this exchange of kind words is just that: kind words. And kind words don’t stop bullets.
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bcradle@ymail.com
